VegeBox - Indoor Hydroponic Gardens
Fresh food at your finger tips...

Spice up your life with red hot chilli peppers

Your VegeBox indoor hydroponic garden is not only for growing greens. Add a splash of colour and spice and grow your own red hot chilli or a tangle of juicy cherry tomatoes.

There are so many reasons to spice up your foods. A study by Harvard and China National Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (2015) found that eating spicy food for seven days a week — even just once a day — lowered mortality rates by 14 percent! (Note: if you skip the cooling alcoholic beverage you could live even longer)

The other exciting thing about spicy food is that once your brain has registered the ‘pain’ it immediately starts producing endorphins, those natural little happy makers that give you a rush. That’s maybe why it’s quite addictive, but not in a bad way!

If the pain gets too much just remember that the chemical in spicy food ‘capsaicin’ is also a fat-soluble molecule so can help you on your journey to lose weight if you need to. The little chilli sure packs a spicy punch.

Beware though that if you are going to add more spicy foods to your diet remember that processed foods, as with most takeaway, usually has large amounts of added sodium. So growing your own chilli at home in your VegeBox indoor hydroponic garden and adding it to your home prepared dishes is the way to go. We all know homegrown tastes best.

The little cherry on top

Tomato - vegetable or fruit?

Although technically a fruit, nutritionally cherry tomatoes more closely resemble a vegetable. That means they're low in calories and rich in a number of nutrients that are good for your health. The wisdom is knowing not to put a tomato in your fruit smoothie but then again you never know! You might actually like it!

If you are trying to lose weight the cherry tomato is your new best friend. When you are dieting you want to have food on hand that helps you feel full without using up too much of your daily calorie count. Ten cherry tomatoes have only thirty calories so if you are aiming at 1500 a day these little beauties only take up 2 percent of your calorie needs.

In addition to being low in calories, this little red fruit is a good source of fibre so even if you are not counting calories they are incredibly good for you. Grow them easily in your VegeBox indoor hydroponic garden. Tomatoes also typically contain vitamins A and C, and are a good source of vitamin K and potassium. Thirty cherry tomatoes, that can easily be grown in your VegeBox indoor hydroponic garden, contain more potassium than a medium sized banana. Add lycopene and beta carotene which are known as antioxidants and a spectacular flavour what more could you need? Well, maybe some pasta...yum.

Spicy Cherry Tomato Spaghetti - Simple

Ingredients

• 300g/10½oz dried spaghetti
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil, for frying
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 small red chilli, thinly sliced
• 20 fresh cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 large clove garlic, lightly crushed
• handful basil leaves, torn
• grated parmesan, or similar vegetarian hard cheese, to garnish

Method

1. Boil the spaghetti in salted water until al dente.
2. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the onion until soft.
3. Add the chilli, salt and freshly ground black pepper, turn the heat up and stir.
4. Add the tomatoes and garlic and cook for a further three minutes.
5. Add the spaghetti to the sauce and add the torn basil leaves. Toss until the pasta is coated in the sauce.
6. Serve garnished with grated parmesan.

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